Other Definitions
simile (dict)
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SimileSimile is an Italian musical term meaning "similarly"; it indicates that the performer should continue to apply the preceding directive, whatever it was. For example, a series of dynamic changes to be repeated in many measures would make the music crowded and harder to read if written out in full, so the engraver might insert a simile directive after the first measure of the changes. The performer would then know to continue the dynamic pattern in the following measures.
A simile is a figure of speech in which the subject is compared to another subject, for example, "as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs". Frequently, similes are marked by use of the words like or as, "The snow was like a blanket". However, "The snow blanketed the earth" is also a simile and not a metaphor because the verb blanketed is a shortened form of the phrase covered like a blanket. The phrase "The snow was a blanket over the earth" is the metaphor in this case. Metaphors differ from similes in that the two objects are not compared, but treated as identical, "We are but a moment's sunlight, fading in the grass." See also tertium comparationis. List of notable similes
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